Seeing Double
by HaLsUmMeRs
Summary: Jaylen Arianna Ross has two lives. One with the Torettos, a family she has now come to accept as her own. And another, her past that she tries constantly to keep buried. Will her world fall apart as these two lives collide? *Set right before Fast Five. Rated M for later chapters. Reviews Welcome. I do not own Fast and the Furious.
1. Chapter 1 - The Call

This story will be going back and forth between present and reveal most of Ari's backstory in flashbacks.

I will probably continue the story based on feedback. Thanks to anyone willing to take their time and review my story and give positive feedback!

As always I don't own Fast and the Furious, I only own my Oc.

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Chapter One - The Call

Ari slumped onto her bed, it had been one of those days and all she felt like doing was getting ice cream and snuggling up with Luke to watch a movie. She started. It happened again, him getting under her skin like that. She smiled, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all. A buzzing caught her attention then, but her new phone sat on the end table, silent. She frowned at it.

"What..." But then it hit her.

She sprang up from her bed and dashed to her closet. Throwing open the door, she yanked down a blue sports backpack from a high shelf. Quickly rummaging around the small bag, her fingers enclosed on a vibrating phone and pulled it close to her ear.

"Hello," she said breathlessly, answering it just before the ringing stopped.

"Jay, thank goodness, I've reached you," Mia rushed. "I've tried to get a hold of you for a couple of days now. Where have you been?!"

"Mia, I-I'm sorry. What's wrong?"

"I don't know where to start..." Mia sounded like her world had been crushed, making Ari's stomach drop.

"Don't worry Mi, I'll be home in two days."

On the other line Mia hiccuped, "Thanks Jay, call me when you are on the road."

Snapping the phone shut, Ari slumped back onto the floor. She looked around her room that had come pretty close to feeling like her new home. Luke had finally convinced her to make the place look more roomy. She had added pictures, posters, and even a ridiculous looking shag rug. "I should have known better; this was never supposed to last," she whispered. Hurrying around the small apartment, she packed anything of necessity. "At least one good thing my past taught me was how to pack," she grumbled to herself.

Grabbing the little black phone she had talked to Mia on, Ari punched an old number in. After a few rings a male voice picked up.

"I was wondering how long you could stay away...seven months, huh...a new record."

Ari rolled her eyes. "I have a favor to ask Patch."

"A favor? Seriously?! I haven't seen you for months Jaylen Ross and the first thing you ask for is a favor? You really do need to be knocked off that high horse of yours. I am really disappointed in you. I would have thought that I taught you better than that."

"Don't get your breeches in a knot Patch, it's more of a trade than an actual favor."

"Let me guess; you're going to go crawling back to that low life of a family you found down in LA?" He growled. "And in this mad dash back to them, you need someone to wrap up all the business you'll be leaving behind here? That's fine and all, but I just have one question. What do I get out of it?"

"Patch please," she whimpered.

"Ha I never thought I'd see the day you begged for something Jay." He mocked her. "You must be desperate."

"Do you remember that heist we did in Chicago a few years back?" She persisted ignoring the jab he just made. "The one with the spoiled brat of a millionaire's old car collection?"

"Oh of course, that job went down in flames! Pretty sure that's the one where Ben broke his leg. Oh, I never got that car I wanted either," Patch mused.

"Well if you do this one thing for me...there's this warehouse a buddy of mine has watched over in Boston. I'll give you the address, and everything in it is yours."

The line was silent. Ari could almost see Patch mulling over it over, picking at his always chapped lips. "Patch?" she prompted.

A grunt was heard on the other side. "Deal."


	2. Chapter 2 - The Gang's All Here

¡Flashback¡

"And your name would be?" A soft mocking voice whispered next to her ear.

A younger Jaylen whipped around in surprise while stifling the squeak that threatened to break out of her mouth. She had been looking for her friend Nolan, a scrappy good hearted kid that she met a few days ago, but soon got sidetracked watching the neon green, blue, and yellow motorcycles zipping through the narrow streets in an uncoordinated race.

Jay blurted the first name that came to mind. "Hannah," introducing herself to the stranger. Her voice shook slightly, her heart still beating fast. She stuck out her hand to the man that she assumed had asked her name, as he was less than an arm length away.

"Ah that's too bad, I was hoping you were that Ross girl Nolan's been nonstop babbling about for the last few days." He smiled effortlessly, lighting up his eyes. The man had caught her in her lie, yet seemed not to be bothered by it.

"Oh uh um, ya Ross...Jaylen Ross." She blushed.

"Haha it's alright, I don't look like the most trustworthy person around." The man replied as he rolled his eyes.

He was right though, she thought. He looked older than her, but by how many years she was unsure. A thin scar ran from the underside of his jaw and disappeared somewhere behind his left ear. Curly brown hair fell into light hazel eyes. Those eyes held a spark of mischief. A charmer, that is what this man was. He wore a black Pink Floyd t-shirt that was tight enough to reveal a well fit body underneath and paired with snug tattered blue jeans.

"Well are you going to stare at me all day Bella or do you want to come into the loft? That friend of yours should be inside." He said tilting his head to the side and quirking an eyebrow.

"Shut up and my name is Jay," she grumbled bristling past him in an effort to quell her embarrassment and started walking toward the garage she assumed to be the loft.

She heard him loudly clear his throat behind her.

"It's this way kiddo," he clarified trying his hardest not to smile. He jutted his thumb in the opposite direction of where she was headed before turning around to walk toward the correct garage. "And I spent a few years in New Orleans when I was a kid, tends to slip out once in awhile." He threw a knowing look over his shoulder at her, "I'm Southern, not stupid."

"Um ya I knew that," She jabbed a finger at his retreating back. "Hey! wait...you haven't even told me who you are." Jay growled as she tried to dodge cars and people to catch up to him. He was already starting to get on her nerves.

"Everyone calls me Patch," he bragged while looking over at Jay who had just caught back up with him.

"Patch?" Jay scrunched up her nose. "Ha! That sounds like my dog's name!"

He chuckled darkly. As they arrived at the entrance to the loft, he rested a calloused hand in the middle of the door, preventing them from going any farther and fixed Jaylen with a hardened glare. "Ya little one make fun of it all you want, but it's just a nickname. As to how I got that nickname-" he pulled at the bottom of his fitted black shirt with his other hand.

"Uh, hey now we're in public dude and I just met-" Jaylen started to protest and shot up a hand to shield her eyes.

Patch used his hand that had been on the door, to spin Jaylen back around to face him. "Chill, I'm just showing you my scar is all."

And as she looked closer, she saw what looked like lightened birthmarks criss crossed with other scared lines along the plains of his stomach.

"Motorcycle accident," Patch confessed leaning back against the door as his voice became solemn. "Had a skin graph over most of me torso, legs and the backs of arms, thought I wasn't gonna to make it."

Just as Jay felt bad for him and thought of saying something nice to cheer Patch up, a thump sounded from the other side of the door. "Hey Idiot get off the f-ing door!" An angered voice demanded from the other side of the wall.

"Whoops," Patch smirked lazily, his mood flipped like a switch as he edged away. A resounding humph was heard from the door before a scowling kid tried to open it again. Jays eyebrows shot up, behind the door stood a boy who couldn't have been more than fifteen. This couldn't possibly be the loft, she questioned, this boy was too young to be involving himself with a crowd who was known for illegal street racing. His white-blonde hair was lazily pulled back in a sloppy bun on the top of his head so that a few unruly strands cluttered his face. Big rimmed glasses enlarged his green-blue eyes, while freckles splattered every part of his face.

"Oh it's you Patch, I should have known!" The scowl was instantly gone and replaced by a wryly grin.

"Gray, dis Nolan's new friend that he's been talkin about, the racer one. Ross, this is Grayson Peters, our computer genius/the most awkward human being y'll ever meet."

"Dude! So not cool, I-I I'm not th-that bad, come on, it's so not cool to-to trash people like that-"

"Hey! Gray, right?" She pulled the kids attention to her and away from Patch, "It's alright, I'm awkward too!" Jay flashed a smile in another attempt to distract the distraught looking kid.

"Come on now lovebirds," Patch snickered as he cupped a hand around Jay's shoulder and slung his other arm around Grayson, "the gang's all here and waiting on us."

The thrumming of music reverberated throughout the building as the three walked further into the hallway. Jay could tell they were getting closer to the source. She could faintly feel the vibrations through her fingertips as her hand skimmed the wallpaper. She briefly wondered how often their neighbors called the cops because of the loud noise.

Taking a sharp right and two more lefts, the hallway suddenly opened up to a large main area. It looked like a cross between a garage and an old living room. You could almost draw a line in between where the few scattered cars were parked began and where the couches, tables, bar, posters, radio system, and colored rugs were shoved against the far wall. Here was where everyone was gathered.

Grayson roughly jerked out of Patch's grip and raced over to a small group gathered around a bright candy red Evo. A redhead kid turned around as Gray squeezed past him. His eyes found Jaylen and his mouth quirked up into a shy smirk of recognition before pulling away from the group.

"Well look who finally decided to join the party," the redhead boomed while sauntering over to where Patch and Jaylen stood. His loud voice could even be heard over the pounding music throughout the the building, causing the other people to turn around in curiosity.

Not use to being the center of attention, Jay's checks flushed red as she tried in vain to hide herself behind Patch. He laughed and playfully wrapped a muscled arm around her waist, pulling her forward towards the group and the redhead.

"Hey do you know a Hannah?" Patch jokingly called to the approaching redhead.

Jay threw Patch the nastiest look she could muster while Nolan scrunched his forehead in confusion at the random question.

"Uh no, I mean I probably have ran into two or three, oh there's that one on tv who does the whole switching between a pop star and a normal girl thing but a specific one doesn't come to mind. Why do you ask?"

"Oh no reason," Patch scoffed, leave it up to Nolan to take a simple joke and turn it completely around.

Nolan turned back to Jaylen, who had an awed look on her face while she curiously gazed around the room. "Love at first sight huh?" Nolan knocked his shoulder with Jay to get her attention.

"What!? In love with h-him?!" She hastily jabbed a finger at Patch. "Oh heck no! You've got t-ta be kidding me!"

Nolan bent over clutching his stomach laughing, causing Patch to walk away grumbling something about not appreciating real men.

"Oh no, I was talking about the loft!"

"Well...this is awkward." Jay averted her gaze to the floor and started working on smudging out a scuff on a part of the tile.

"Here," Nolan coaxed tugging Jaylen over to the group of people that Grayson and Patch had both disappeared into, "let's introduce you to my family."

"Wow Nol, our relationship is moving so fast." Jay deadpanned.

Nolan in turn just huffed causing a piece of his hair to flip into his eyes.

There were six people including Patch and Grayson still gathered around the stylized red Evo. Patch, of course, was seated in the middle on the hood of the car. A skinny girl Jay could only assume was a racer chaser snuggled into his side. She glared at Jay like she might snatch Patch from her at any moment.

"Down Kitty Kat, dang girl she's good I promise!" Nolan snickered, amused at the girl's instant mistrust. "Guys this is Jay." He announced.

A rough looking man with black tattoos twisting and swirling up and down his arms like vines stuck his hand out. His eyes caught Jay's, they were a light glacier blue that seemed to laugh at her. He wore a simple dark gray v-neck with black cargo pants and had a Royals ball cap twisted backwards on his head.

"You must be pretty special then, Skits never brings a girl back to meet us. But it's nice to meet you anyway, I'm Cam."

Cam's hand encompassed hers as they shook.

"Ya back at you." Jaylen responded.

Nolan groaned. "Ya ya ya guys lets not make a big deal of this please." "Anyway Jay, this is Kat", pointing to the girl who was still glaring at her, "and her brother Max."

Max was the one slouched on the other side of Patch. If anyone could pull off the cookie cutter normal boy look, it was this kid. For the second time that night Jay desperately wanted to know how these people all came together. Max nodded his head in Jays direction.

"Not much of a talker?" Jay whispered to Nolan.

"Haha naw, him and Kat just take a while to warm up to strangers."

"You don't say." Jay mumbled.

"And I'm Danny, by the way, as it seems Nolan has a habit of forgetting the competition." A very tall guy stepped up in front of Jaylen.

"Competition huh? You'd have to be pretty damn amazing then," Jay laughed.

"Haha more than you know sweetheart." The guy in question winked. Danny had that good boy look. He had dark hair that was an awkward length. It was too short to place in a ponytail but long enough that it got in his eyes. It seemed to flop over his head like a frat boy's. Dark long lashes that any girl would have been instantly jealous of encircled wide green eyes that fixed her with a piercing gaze. His skin was the perfect color of a dark tan that Jay guessed was completely natural.

"Well now that the stupid intros are over with, what are we going to do?" Max interjected throwing a look over his shoulder at Patch.

He grinned. "What else? We show little Miss Ross here how we race."

A genuine smile appeared on Jaylen's face. For once in a very long time, she felt like she belonged.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Long Drive Home

The Long Drive Home

 **Warning** : Mild cursing in this chapter.

Italics either indicate character thoughts or some action that happened (aka a sound)

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Jaylen dashed down the dirty cobble stairs of her apartment building and ran a shaky hand through her hair in an attempt to smooth out her jumbled thoughts. Done with packing, there still remained one thing she had to sort out, Luke Hobbs.

Whenever the topic of her past came up, she lied. Well, not explicitly lie per se, rather than just leave out important, specifically illegal, details.

It was a simple decision, she could up and leave without a goodbye or she could tell him everything and hope he somehow understood. Casting a glance to the bleached city sky, she found there was only one answer. She had always gone with the coward's way out and breaking habits isn't as easy as stubbing out a cigarette.

Jaylen slapped the hood of her '69 Dodge Charger, splaying her fingers across the black paint. The right side of her mouth quirked upwards in a thoughtful smile at the car she named Leroy (what she thought sounded like a cuter version of Lee) after one too many Dukes of Hazard's marathons with Luke. She leaned into the side of her car and flipped out her phone. It rang five times before the monotone voice recording indicated he was busy.

"Hey Luke, uh ya it's-it's me. This isn't how I wanted to do this, but I'm a coward and wouldn't ever be able to say this to your face. Please don't come after me. I'm gone so there's no use trying. I can't explain everything to you. B-but just know… know that I never meant to hurt you and gosh darn-it that sounds so cliche but I promise- ugh. I never faked it when I was with you. I lo-" _Beep. The machine cut off her last words._

With a defeated groan, she chucked the new phone onto the paved street and it broke with a click of her heel.

Jaylen slumped into the drivers seat and felt a tear drag itself down her cheek. She stole a look through the rear view mirror, and not for the first time Jay watched as she was forced to say goodbye to a place that was home.

She pummeled her fists against the wheel while a pop song blared itself through the radio. "This shouldn't be happening," she bawled. "I cannot have my life fall apart, not this time. I CAN'T lose my family!" With a sigh, Jaylen urged more speed from the engine. After a few more moments of drumming onto the steering wheel, Jay calmed down.

While keeping both eyes on the road, she reached blindly with her hand for her old cellphone buried deep inside the satchel that occupied the passenger seat. "Haha!" She whooped clenching the guilty phone in her raised hand. "Not so good at hide-n-seek as you thought!" She taunted the inanimate object. Thumbing the redial button, Jay held the phone up to her ear. After a few rings, Mia answered.

"Hello?"

"Mia I am on my way home. Can you please tell me what is going on?" Jaylen pleaded. Mia was scaring her, she never sounded this desperate for Jay to come home. After she had packed most of her belongings, Jay had been too paranoid to do anything else. She ended up calling Mia and what info she could get out of her was bad news. Something had happened to Letty, but Jaylen just didn't understand how or why. "It's Letty, Jay something happened and-and-" haggard sobs choked out the rest her words. Faint voices could be heard on the other line, then a male voice piped up, "Hey um-uh it's Brian."

The bitterness from before came surging back like a tidal wave. "What are YOU doing back?!" Jay seethed.

"Look I promise-" Brian started.

"Your word means nothing to me Brian, you broke apart the only family I had ever trusted, the only people who were there for me when my whole world broke apart."

"You don't ever have to trust me again, please I understand that. But Jaylen, this is bigger than my past mistakes-" Brian winced as he broke off. "Please," he tried again, "Letty got mixed up in a bad situation with Braga's cartel down here and someone came after her because of it."

There was silence while Jay considered this. And the reality of it all that Letty was gone, never really hit her. As she began to respond to Brian another voice came back onto the phone. "Please come home." It was Dom, the strong voice that Jay loved was gone.

Jay urged on her faithful car with renewed urgency.

 **Time Skip - Back in L.A.**

It looked the same yet different, like a childhood memory. It was like remembering some place that seemed so perfect as a kid but visiting it later on and finding out it was the complete opposite. That was how Jay saw the house now. It looked almost abandoned. The place could have been something Jay's juvenile friends back home dared each other to go inside, to prove who was the bravest.

Brian's words echoed inside her head. "You need to be careful Jaylen. They are watching the house and Mia pretty closely. I need you to park your car away from the house where it won't attach attention. Then when it's dark, come by the garage into the back door."

"You want me to sneak inside my own house?!" Jay shrieked.

"Please Jaylen, it's necessary to protect the remainder of our-your family."

Jaylen grimaced knowing that she shouldn't push this too far.

After pulling her baby into a parking garage, Jay slung her bag onto her back and slipped the cover over the car. "I promise I'll be back for ya…this is just for tonight, then we can maybe get you into a nice garage, somethin with a Charger in it, ehe?" She chuckled to herself, shaking her head at the craziness that her life had become. Slipping around the corner, Jay took to the shadows. Ten minutes later, she recognized her old neighborhood. "Whoo! I'm not so useless after all, now I just have to cut in between a few backyards and I'll be home free."

"Sleuthing that's what this shit is." Jaylen mumbled to herself tripping over a small children's toy hidden in the grass. "How in the living hell did those people on TV make it look so easy?" Realizing she was speaking out loud, she cursed. _No, I'm more uncoordinated than that baby deer on ice._ She stopped for a moment. _What the hell was the name of that cartoon? It had some other woodland animals in it, a skunk, maybe a rabbit called oh what was it? Jeez! I can't even think of the damn rabbit's name. Bunny? No…Bam Bam? No…_ "SHIT it's Thumper!" She squealed throwing her hands in the air as it should have been obvious all along, then promptly clamped a hand over her mouth. "This…this reason right here is why I could never ever star in a 007 movie." Jaylen whined through her hands.

Abruptly a back door slammed, jolting Jay out of her stupor.

"Jay?" It was a question whispered into the dark. Jaylen let out a breath she hadn't known she took. "Mia, oh my- I Oh Mia-" Jaylen finally sobbed launching herself at her friend that long ago had become more like a sister.

"You're home." Mia crushed the smaller girl to her as if she could physically protect Jay from more harm.

 **Authors Note**

 **Hope you liked the new chapter. I tried to set this one up so that you got more of the setting of where in the F &F franchise my story takes place. And some of the personality my character has. Most of the story that I will continue to write will focus on what happens with my Oc (how she changes the plot line/impacts the group) starting before Fast Five. There will be a few flashbacks revealing some of her backstory, but I think if this story takes off like I want it to, that I'll just write a completely new story focusing on her time when she met Dom & co and their adventures together. Review if you want, thanks!**


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